


A Misstep Through Time and Space

by Mystique



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underfell, Basically Mirrorverse Garbage, F/M, How do tag gud? I'll add more as I figure this out, Lots of OCs I tried to stop myself, Post-Apocalyptic UpperFell? (Does that make sense?), Post-Pacifist Route, Rape-y UF!Sans, Seriously I'm not a physicist I have no idea what I'm talking about, Slavery, Technobabble, UF!Sans & UF!Papyrus are assholes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-05-28 08:52:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6322948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mystique/pseuds/Mystique
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate dimensions is not the division of physics that Dr. Lucida Cooper works in, her area of proficiency lies in time travel theory. When the monsters trapped under Mount Ebott had joined the above-ground though, Lucy had found herself in the unique position of being able to work with a genius in the field of time travel. But the machine they end up building doesn't quite do what they expected it to do, and Lucy finds herself trapped in a nightmarish hellhole, with a very unfriendly version of the monster she had previously started to develop more then professional feelings towards.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mirror, Mirror

_Dear rabbit my legs are getting weak chasing you_

_The snow fields wouldn't seem so big if you knew_

_That this blood on my teeth it is far beyond dry_

“I Know I'm a Wolf”, Young Heretics

 

_**There** **...** _

The forest was black, and silent, the cold and doom of nuclear winter hanging heavy in the air. No light could filter through the thick, ash choked clouds above, so the time of day or night was hard to decipher. There was no longer any life in this forest, the wildlife having long died out, or moved on, and the plant life being smothered under the snow of an endless winter. However, soon the stillness was broken by the crunching of snow under rapid steps, and panicked, labored breathing. A small figure wrapped in a ratty blanket ran through the woods. Her legs, where they showed under the covering as she ran, were bare, except for rags that were tied to her feet and shins for make-shift shoes.

The gray ash mixed in with the falling snow had become smudged all over the blanket, bare legs, and soaked towel-rag feet coverings, but the woman took little notice. In fact, she seemed to take little heed of the path she traveled as well, as she slipped, and stumbled through the snow. Much of her attention seemed to be drawn backwards, because she would turn her head frequently as she ran, shooting furtive glances to where she had come, her frenzied movements evidence of the terror permeating her very being.

Nothing seemed to be following her though, a fact that the slight figure seemed to finally appreciate. She slowed her frantic pace some, and tried to finally take stock of her surroundings.  Her progress was further halted however, when she stumbled over a large branch buried in the snow, falling to the ground with a muffled thud, and a loud crack from the snapping branch. The blanket that had been previously pulled over her head fell back, revealing short, brown, loosely curled hair, and a gaunt face. Her light caramel-colored skin had gone ashen from fear, and poor health, and a large purple bruise bloomed across her left cheek-bone. The glint of metal at her neck from a steel collar marked her as property.

“ _This is hopeless_.” the woman thought, “ _There is nothing out here except for hundreds of miles of wasteland. If the cold doesn’t kill me soon, it will eventually be exposure to radiation_.”

The words in her head were harsh, and bleak, but they were nothing she wasn’t already aware of when she first formulated her escape plan back at the hell she previously called home. Sure, there were methods at her disposal back there to end her own life if that had really been the end goal, much quicker and less painful methods at that. But she knew this wasn’t about ending her suffering, this was about perseverance. So long as there was chance, she knew she would take the hard road, no matter what.

The woman shivered, the heat she had been generating from her frantic pace was wearing off, and the cold was catching up to her. So despite the parade of hopeless thoughts that plagued her mind, she knew it was time to get back onto her feet, and continue the march onward.  She had only just managed to pull the blanket back over her head however, when a noise froze her in place. The sound of another branch snapping somewhere out in the forest.

Her body trembled uncontrollably from a combination of the cold, and terror as she tried in vain to gauge from where and how far away the sound had come from. The echo it made in the empty forest made it impossible to tell though, and as the sound faded away, she sat in silence, a hand over her mouth to muffle her heavy breathing, and her ears strained to find any accompanying sounds of pursuit.

“ ** _L u u u u c y !_** ”

The sound of the familiar, deep voice calling her name out from some unknown place in the forest froze her guts, and her heart began pounding in her head. He had discovered her absence already. She had hoped she’d have more time. She had hoped that the perpetually falling snow could have covered her tracks before he’d even noticed she had escaped. She had hoped a lot of things in her life, but her hopes never seemed to be taken into consideration in this world she lived in.

A small, desperate sob escaped her throat and hot tears spilled down her cheeks, as she pulled herself back to her feet, and began her harrowing pace forward once again.

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

_In the pines, in the pines_

_Where the sun don't ever shine_

_I would shiver the whole night through_

“Where Did You Sleep Last Night”, American Folk Song/Nirvana

 

_**Here...** _

“Knock knock.”

From Dr. Cooper’s position, bent over on the floor panel of the machine they were building as she plugged her laptop into a USB port, she heard two aggravated groans, and one baritone, good-natured voice respond “Who’s there?”

“A broken pencil.”

“A broken pencil who?” the entertained voice responded.

“Never mind, it’s pointless.”

Lucy stifled a small giggle, and glanced up at the audience after Sans’ punch line to see Tibbs, the intern who was responding to the skeleton monster’s joke give a hearty guffaw. The other two interns looked less then entertained however. Simon simply rolled his eyes and continued the wiring on the component he worked on, but Jen looked up from her computer screen with a murderous scowl. A small warning alarm went off in Lucy’s mind. She knew the short Asian-American girl had quite the temper. And the code she was working on for the machine they were all building was tedious. Maybe she should step in before Jen lost her temper-

“Speaking of broken pencils though, mine is actually broken, could you sharpen it for me Jen?” Sans said before Lucy could interject and diffuse the situation, while holding up what was indeed a pointless pencil, and flashing the intern one of his patented shit-eating grins.

Oops…

“The pencil sharpener is literally ten feet away from you!” Jen shouted, jumping to her feet and slamming her hands on the desk in front of her, office chair rolling away from her momentum, like it was fleeing from her rage.

“Yeah, but you’re up now?” Sans reasoned calmly, still leaning casually back in his own chair, feet on the desk in front of him, and trying to balance the broken pencil on the tip of one skeletal finger.

Jen looked like she might jump over her desk and attack the skeleton, but luckily the dark skinned, heavily built, good-natured Tibbs interjected before things began to get violent.

“Yo, I got this Sans.” Tibbs crossed the room, patting Jen on the back as he passed her, which seemed to calm her some, and took the broken pencil from the still smiling Sans to take it to the electric sharpener.

Lucy watched as Jen stood for a moment longer, her rage slowly dissipating into a slightly abashed expression, before rolling her chair back to her desk and sitting quietly. The small, willowy woman was one of the most talented, brilliant students to apply for the intern position she now held. But her hot temper was a shortcoming that the scientist had not anticipated, considering the outward appearance of a sweet, bespectacled, pink and glittery accessorized young person. Luckily, for the most part, Jen’s temper didn’t boil over very often, even on days when Sans was his most ‘charming’. Lately, as the project they were all working on grew closer to completion, however, (which meant soon onto the testing phase) tension was building for everyone.

Well, everyone except for Sans, who no matter what happened, always seemed too apathetic to care. Which was ironic considering that this project wouldn’t be where it was today without him. Granted, Lucy had been the one to spearhead it, and had been working on time travel theory her entire career, but she would be the first to admit that her research had hit a rut before she met Sans. Quantum physics had taken a huge leap in the last year since Lucy had tracked down the skeleton, and pestered him into working with her and the university.

Actually, it could be said that science in general grew in leaps and bounds in the last five years since the monsters came aboveground. Sure there had been some drama about citizenship, rights, and whether the monsters should have either at the time. However, when the rest of the world saw the unique abilities, and understanding that the new beings offered, and began openly advertising full rights and citizenship to any monsters who emigrated from the US, things changed quickly. And because of this, Lucy got to meet the very famous Dr. Alphys.

The gifted monster engineer had come to work at the university almost two years ago, and she was a very busy monster at that time to say the least. Research regarding monsters was still a very hot topic, so Lucy had a difficult time pinning down a few minutes with Alphys to bounce some of her theories off of her. When Lucy finally managed to get the interview, it was only to be told that while her theory seemed feasible, she was really not the best monster to interview about quantum physics. But Dr. Alphys did give her the contact information of another monster who she said at one time had been an expert in time travel theory while in the Underground.

That was how Lucy had come to first meet Sans. But getting the monster to share his ideas on time travel had been quite challenging at first. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the fact that Sans’ brother, Papyrus had been the one to answer when she’d called, she doubted she would have even gotten past the first phone call. Luckily, all she had to do to get invited over for dinner by the loud, outgoing skeleton brother, was to introduce herself and explain she had been given their contact information by Dr. Alphys. What followed was a disastrous evening involving questionable pasta, a lot of terrible jokes engineered to constantly change the subject whenever Lucy tried to veer the conversation onto time travel theory, and culminating in Sans stating he needed some fresh air, walking through the closest doorway (which happened to be a closet) and promptly disappearing, to Lucy’s extreme bewilderment, and aggravation. Papyrus explained to Lucy after the shorter skeleton had left about Sans’ shortcomings with doing anything resembling work, and Lucy had gone home that night feeling more defeated than ever.

Her hopelessness did not last long though, for if there was one thing that had gotten Lucy where she was in life, it was her stubbornness, and persistence. She went back to the skeleton brothers’ house often after that, constantly trying to pin Sans down for at least a short interview on his past research. Eventually it paid off, Sans finally caved, and let her ask all the questions he had been expertly deflecting until then. It turned out his knowledge on quantum physics was extensive. And the theories and formulas he explained for Lucy were revolutionary. She give details in return about the work she had done thus far, and her ideas about creating an artificial Einstein–Rosen bridge, and Sans effectively filled in the gaps in her understanding on how to create such a machine.

At some point during those days that Lucy had spent badgering the skeleton for her interview, she’d begun to suspect that this was all a huge joke being played on her. That Sans didn’t have a clue about anything relating to physics. But when he finally cracked and they discussed their theories in detail, she came to realize that he was absolutely brilliant. They talked for hours, and Sans even dug out some old notes and blueprints to send her on her way with. She was sure he was happy to finally see the end of her when she left that day, however Lucy wished she could go back and discuss more with him. She felt like she’d only managed to scratch the surface of his genus, and wanted to delve deeper. And, though she certainly wasn’t fully aware of it at the time, she had become smitten with the monster.

But Lucy left Sans in peace after that, collecting all the new understanding of space time she had gathered from him, and writing a very comprehensive article. She credited Sans in the paper of course (though he still seemed infuriatingly apathetic about getting any credit whatsoever), and the piece garnered a lot of attention. Things moved really fast after that. The university offered her a grant, workspace, and interns to actually get a proto-type of the machine she proposed built. They wanted Sans on the project too, which was no surprise, not just because of the insight he had brought to the theory, but because the university very much wanted the press for having not one, but two monsters on the payroll of their science department.

Dr. Cooper was skeptical that they would convince the monster to join the project, but she did nothing to dissuade them from trying. So it came as quite a pleasant surprise when she walked into the new space the university had provided for the project, to find Sans kicked back on a pile of cardboard boxes full of parts, napping. When she had managed to wake him, and teasingly questioned him about what made him take the project on, he merely shrugged and commented that someone had explained that the interns do all the work anyways, so why not?

Which brought Lucy back to today’s issue between Sans and the interns. Dr. Cooper had chosen three very qualified students for the positions she needed. The hot-headed Jennifer Shibata was their software engineer major, Tiberius Jones (or as he insisted everyone call him, Tibbs), was their quantum physics major, and the socially awkward Simon Walker, was their engineering major. While Tibbs was pretty easy-going and could care less, Jen and Simon had complained to Lucy at length about how little Sans seemed to do around the lab, and some of the tasks he would send them on. She explained patiently that Sans was doing everything he was being paid for, and effectively quashed their small rebellion before it ever started, but she could still hear the occasional grumble, and spotted a few hard glares tossed Sans’ way from time to time. The monster never seemed to care though, and if anything, actually seemed to enjoy giving the interns shit even more lately.

For her part, Lucy wasn’t just covering for Sans when she had corrected the two interns for their complaints. Sans put up quite a show of not caring, he spent a large amount of his time at the lab napping, or disrupting their work with gags and jokes. But there would be times that Lucy would open her notes on her laptop to find corrections, or additions that she knew she never made. Or there would be alterations made to the blueprints tacked to walls for improvements. Once she even arrived at the lab one morning to find a box of components that she was sure wouldn’t be arriving for another three weeks because of a hold up in customs at the airport overseas. It was amazing that the monster managed to get so much done without anyone noticing, almost as if he were their guardian angel of science.

Lucy’s mouth tipped up in the smallest of secret smiles at the ridiculous image that thought made in her head as she stared intensely at her laptop screen. The computer was plugged directly into the machine’s CPU as it ran simulations. For the most part the data seemed to be flawless, and in all the test firings the artificial wormhole successfully opened. But there was a small anomaly that the physicist was having difficulty pinpointing. She knew that in theory the machine should be creating a very small, contained Einstein–Rosen bridge. Any matter that passed through the bridge should arrive at a specific location, but slightly out of sync with the time-line the matter arrived at; meaning that data could be collected, without affecting, or being affected by anything in the target time-line. The bridge should remain open while the matter from their current time-location has crossed, and should only close when the time-displaced matter returns to its proper time-line.

However, for some reason in the simulations on her laptop the bridge was only opening long enough to allow the matter to pass through, and closing immediately. In real time, this would mean that not only would they be unable to determine at what point in space-time the probe that they would be sending on their first test run arrived, but they would also be unable to retrieve the probe, or collect any of the valuable data the probe would be gathering for them. What was most frustrating about this is that they had yet to work out how they could control where, and at what point in time exactly the wormhole would open up at. As amazing as it was that they had actually managed to create an artificial Einstein–Rosen bridge so far in their testing, they were still ages away from truly being able to control the phenomenon.

Lucy sighed as she made adjustments to the program, and then set the laptop down so she could get back on her knees and access the control panel her computer was plugged into to check that the machine’s hard drive would accept the new program.

“Jen, when was the last time you ran a debug on the main processor?” she called out from her position, head in a hole on the open floor panel as she typed commands into the small screen affixed to the machine.

“Uh, Tuesday I think, Dr. Cooper.” Jen answered without looking away from her computer screen, and with a noticeably calmer voice to Lucy’s relief. At least Jen’s temper cooled as quickly as it could sometimes rise.

“We should run it again soon. I want to make sure the data I’m getting from the simulations is accurate.” Lucy said.

“Dr. Cooper, before we run another debug, maybe let me try plugging this topology modifier back in?” Simon interjected quietly. “I just finished rewiring the port, so it should be ready to reconnect and maybe it will actually work this time?”

“If it’s ready now you can go ahead and reconnect it, but I still want to run a debug before I try more simulations.” Lucy responded to the ginger, freckled intern absently, most of her attention focused on the control panel. She doubted the component would make much of a difference, as so far it hasn’t changed the results of the simulations when they had it connected before. Granted, the component was built by Simon to some specifications that Dr. Alphys herself had drawn up, but the monster scientist seemed dubious about whether the part would actually do what it was supposed to do in the first place.

If Lucy had been more cognizant about the fact that the component was about to be plugged into a part of the machine that currently had power, she might have been able to stop what was about to happen. But she was so focused on adjusting the settings of the control panel, that the thought didn’t even cross her mind. She heard a small snap as the part clicked into place, and a deep whirring as something connecting with the component set off an activation sequence within the machine. With a quiet gasp, Lucy’s head jerked up from inside the floor panel, and she looked over at Simon, whose face reflected horror back to the doctor. Her mind screamed at her to lunge from the machines transporting stage she was currently kneeling on, but she couldn’t get her body to move in union with her frantic thoughts.

She pushed herself off her knees, ready to leap away from the activating machine, her eyes falling on Sans, who was now standing from his seat, shock on his skeletal features, as a flash of light took Lucy’s vision, and her consciousness was forcibly pulled from her. She felt nothing, and was nothing for an incomprehensible amount of time, before a blast of cold air hit her. The leap she had started from the platform of the machine was completed, but her landing was not on the smooth tile of the lab floor, but in a crumpled ball in a bank of snow. The freezing temperature hit her like a wave washing over her body. She didn’t even have the warmth of her lab coat, as it had been discarded on her desk earlier, leaving her in only a pair of simple jeans, sensible shoes, and a light blouse.

Shivering violently Lucy stood from the snow, her mind on the brink of panic. The machine had activated, and she had been caught in the wormhole. She didn’t know where she was, when she was, and clearly she was firmly in whatever time-line she had been thrown into, because if she had been temporally displaced, like the simulations projected, then she would not have left the indent of her body in the bank of snow she had just landed in. Lucy wrapped her arms around herself as a strong wind blew through the dark forest she seemed to have found herself in, and she fought off the hysteria that was slowly trying to take control of her mind. She must remain rational, her wits, and her perseverance were all she had to rely on now.

As the wind passed the forest fell into a deep silence, the rattle of branches ceased, and a deep sense of unease enveloped her surroundings. The doctor looked up to the sky to see if she could determine where she was by the stars, but the little of the sky she could see through the bare branches of the trees was clouded over. In the distance, the crunching of snow reached Lucy’s ears. Excitement and a strange sense of disquiet filled her insides. Was there someone else in the forest with her? Was it a person, or an animal?

She wanted to call out into the dark forest, but the primal part of Lucy’s brain that feared the unknown urged her to stay mute. What if it was something dangerous? Her ragged breathing fell harshly on her ears, almost drowning out the distant sounds of crunching snow, as she struggled with what to do next for what felt like hours. Lucy forced her mind to slow down, her imagination stilled, simple rational thoughts filled its place. If it was an animal of some kind, chances were good that her calling out would be more likely to scare the creature off. And besides, now that she listened very carefully, the sound seemed to be made by something bipedal. Though the shadow of terror at the back of her mind did not fully disappear, she felt more confident as she opened her mouth, and called into the darkness.

“Hello!?”

Her voice left her lips with a cloud of steam, and the sound of the call seemed to bounce around the barren forest, leaving a ringing in its wake. Almost as if this forest hadn’t heard something so loud in a very long time. Lucy’s nerves jangled with stress as the distant sounds of walking stopped, and deafening silence once again rushed in to fill the void. Lucy strained her ears against the quiet trying to detect the presence of another living individual. So focused was she, that when the sound suddenly started again, but this time much noticeably closer, and clearly off to her right, she let out a soft gasp.

Spinning in place to face whatever approached her in the darkness, Lucy could make out a point of red light approaching, like an ember floating in space. It struck her unsettlingly like light reflecting off of the eye of a beast. As the form began to emerge from the night, she saw that it was indeed an eye, focused intently on her, luminous red smoke radiating from the scarlet circle, and lighting up the facial features that approached steadily. The face was a skull with dark eye sockets, and a wide grin, a familiar face she realized with a start.

“Sans?” Lucy breathed out hesitantly.

A small twinge of relief sparked in her chest, if Sans was here she must not have been sent far. But the warm feeling didn’t last long. It faded as realization struck, that despite the fact that the monster who approached her looked just like Sans, there was definitely a very alien feel to him. He stopped right in front of her for a moment, looking her over with a mirrored expression of confusion, which was quickly beginning to harden into anger. A foreign demeanor from the Sans she knew.

Now that she truly studied the monster before her, she began to mentally tick off all the things that were wrong. Since when did Sans smoke cigars she wondered, watching as he took a slow drag from the lit cylinder, and exhaled. Smoke curled lazily between sharp, shark-like teeth, and trickled out of his eye sockets, adding to the red glow emanating from the left side of his face. The light from the end of the cigar glinted off a gold tooth, another alien feature on a face that was so familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

“Right about now I’m guessing you’re starting to realize that I ain’t who you thought I was.” His voice was that familiar, deep baritone that she recognized, but he also had a slight accent that was new. “Just as much as I’m starting to realize you’re not who I thought you were either.”

Lucy’s whole body tensed. An aura of menace rolled off the monster before her in waves. It was time to run. However, once again she found her body unable to follow the directions of her brain. Her muscles were locked in place as her mind screamed at her to move. It didn’t take long for her to realize that it wasn’t because she was paralyzed in panic though. Her arms and legs were locked in place with a red glow; a glow similar in color to the light that blazed from the eye socket of the skeleton monster glaring at her.

“You look an awful lot like her though,” Not Sans muttered, walking in a slow circle around Lucy, drinking in her frozen form with his eye sockets. “I suppose you’re what my little Lucy would look like if I’d taken better care of her hmm? A little…rounder,” She let out a startled squeak as she felt a hard pinch to her ample bottom, and felt her face heat up in embarrassment, and the beginnings of anger.

“You’re right; I have no idea who you are, so I’d appreciate it if you’d back off!” She ground out indignantly between her clenched teeth, trying to hide the quaver in her voice.

The monster made his way back around to her line of vision, a smug grin on his skull. “No need to get cheeky, I’m just being an ass.” He said with a chuckle and a wink. Lucy felt a heavy weight drop into her stomach at the comment. A result of her conflicting feelings of outrage, and a strange sense of longing that she recognized somewhere in the back of her mind as a half formed daydream that it be the Sans she knew making lewd puns at her expense. It wouldn’t have been so bad were that the case, she thought, maybe it would’ve even been welcome. But this frightening shade of the skeleton monster she knew was a different story.

Well, you had one thing right doll, the name is still Sans,” he said while she grimaced at the pet name. “I take it you’re still Lucy huh? Just a different version of her it seems?” He asked, still appraising her uncomfortably.

“Dr. Cooper will suffice, thank you.” Lucy responded coldly, trying her best to keep a neutral expression.

“Aww, our little Lucy a doctor? How sweet,” the menacing monster said, his grin becoming, if possible, even more predatory. “Well, I’ve got some questions about how you got here, and where you came from Doc,” he started, stepping up to her prone form, and grabbing her upper arm painfully, “and I’d like to know where my Lucy might be. We were only just starting to break her in you see; it’d be a shame to have to start all over again.”

The threat hung heavily in the air, making Lucy take a reflexive swallow, and fight to keep her neutral expression, as she and Sans disappeared from the forest, leaving it in its deathly silence once again.


	2. Culture Shock

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title changed, because I really didn't like the old one.  
> There is only so much time I can continue to spend polishing this turd, so here, have another chapter. ;P

_So when you met the new you_

_Were you scared, were you cold, were you kind?_

_Yeah when you met the new you, did someone die inside?_

“Upside Down & Inside Out”, Ok Go

 

**_Here…_ **

Sans had been on his feet and across the room via one of his shortcuts as soon as he realized that the machine had started its activation sequence. However, by the time he had blinked across the room, the moment had already passed, the sequence having completed, and he was too late to pull the doctor out of the way in time. All that remained on the transportation stage floor was a crumpled pile of soaked, dirty rags. A crumpled pile of rags that he soon realized contained a person, as it groaned and shifted.

Still slightly in shock Sans reached down to the person under what appeared to be a ratty old blanket. Could it be likely this was still Lucy? The team had yet to actually test the machine they were working on, so at this point anything could be possible, and the idea briefly occupied his thoughts that when the Einstein-Rosen Bridge had opened, it could have created a time rift that would have caused Lucy to be trapped in time for an indeterminate period. Would the individual who looked up from the ground at him be a significantly aged Lucy, who had been trapped in time alone for decades while only a mere moment had passed here?

The person under the blanket turned their head up, eyes blinking rapidly, most-likely adjusting to the bright fluorescent lighting in the lab. Sans let out a quiet sigh of relief as he realized that the face did not belong to an elderly Dr. Cooper. In fact, whoever this was they did not seem to be Lucy at all now that Sans could see their face. The woman appeared to be approximately the same age as Lucy, but her face was gaunt, and a large purple bruise covered one of her cheeks. Judging from the condition the woman was in, she probably was going to need a doctor.

Her eyes, finally seeming to have adjusted to the light, locked onto Sans’ face, and with a jolt Sans recognized the chestnut brown eyes gazing up at him as Lucy’s. It was with that recognition that he began to realize that the woman had other similar features to the physicist. Under the sallow complexion, her skin was the same caramel tone. Her hair, though short, and grimy, was the same texture, and possibly the same shade as Lucy’s as well. Just as Sans was beginning to realize that this _was_ Lucy before him, she seemed to recognize who she was looking at as well, but her reaction was very different from his.

With an agonized shout the woman threw herself backwards off the transporting stage, and away from Sans, leaving the ratty blanket behind. Under the blanket the woman was clothed in only a dirty, oversized red t-shirt, hanging loosely from her emaciated frame. A heavy, steel collar gleamed around her neck, clearly uncomfortably tight judging from the bruised, irritated skin showing around the edges of the collar. A multitude of other injuries could be made out on those parts of her body not concealed under the shirt.

In his time spent aboveground with humans so far, Sans had received his fair share of screams from random people. Though he experienced them less and less, these days, he knew the difference between a shout of surprise at finding oneself suddenly face to skull with a walking skeleton, and the scream this woman who looked so much like Lucy just let out. Hers wasn’t just a scream of terror, but also of rage, and despair. She didn’t scream because she didn’t recognize Sans, she appeared to have screamed because she _did_ recognize him.

The answering yelp that sounded from the other side of the room as she scurried back was definitely a shout of surprise though, as her sudden movement in his direction had startled Simon (who was always a bit jumpy to begin with). The sound alerted Lucy’s doppelganger to the presence of the three other humans in the room, and with a strangled sound of relief she made a full turn and ran right for them. Reaching Tibbs first, she placed herself resolutely behind the much larger student, and glared at Sans from around his side.

“Uhhh...” Was the only response Tibbs could make as he looked up helplessly at Sans.

“She’s still Lucy, I think,” Sans said faintly by way of explanation, scratching the back of his skull uncomfortably with one hand. “I just don’t know what the machine did to her.”

“He’s right, look at her; she looks just like Dr. Cooper.” Jen said, approaching the terrified woman carefully. Lucy didn’t seem too worried by her approach, though she still kept a very wary eye on Sans.

Something about the behavior of those in the lab seemed to finally penetrate the cloud of terror that surrounded the woman. She seemed to register their words, and reluctantly taking her eyes off of Sans, she darted a glance at Jen for the briefest of moments.

“Di-did you just call me ‘Doctor’?” She asked in confusion, her voice cracking slightly, but definitely recognizable as Lucy’s.

“Yes, Dr Lucida Cooper. Isn’t that your name?” Jen responded as soothingly as she could, sneaking worried glances at Sans and the rest of the crew.

“My name is Lucida Cooper, yeah, but I’m no doctor.” The woman replied, her shrewd stare returning to Sans as if to keep him pinned in place with her glare.

“Maybe she’s got some memory loss?” Simon piped up helpfully, clearly trying to save face after his earlier outburst.

“I do not have memory loss!” she growled aggressively at the intern, causing him to flinch sheepishly. “I know exactly who I am, and I’m not this Doctor you people think I am. But I’d like to know who you all are, and why you’re all letting that beast just stand there?” She thrust her chin in Sans’ direction as she spat the question out, and all three interns grimaced.

While not the harshest thing he’d heard a human say to him, Sans felt an internal twinge regardless, for the simple fact that despite her reactions, and denials so far, Sans couldn’t help but recognize the manic woman as Lucy, or at least some version of her. And he’d never expected to hear such a vitriolic line from the astute, persistent Lucy he’d gradually become so attached to. Despite this however, Sans attempted to break the tension in the room the only way he knew how.

“Are you sure you’d remember if you lost your memory?” He asked with the usual grin. The interns, recognizing the signs of a bad joke approaching shot the skeleton monster apprehensive glances, collectively interpreted as _“this is probably not the best time.”_ But Sans neither noticed, nor would have stopped if he had.

“You know, I once knew a joke about amnesia, but I forgot how it goes.” He finished with a wink at the frightened human, and took a step towards her.

“NO!” The exclamation caused everyone in the room to jump, Lucy began to back away, evidently not at all put at ease by Sans’ joke, nor his attempt to slowly approach her. “Keep him away from me!”

It was clear from her body language that she was apt to bolt at any moment, but considering her state of mind, Sans knew that there was no way he could let her loose out into the world. The last thing he wanted to do though was to push her further into her apparent hatred for him by teleporting to her side and restraining her. Luckily (or unluckily) her body did the work for him however, as her cheeks almost visibly took on a green tinge, and she fell to her knees and began to violently loose the contents of her stomach. Tibbs closed the short gap she had put between them, and knelt to hold her steady while she retched.

“Hey, you ok Doc--er, Lucy?” He asked uncertainly, looking up at Jen for help, as Simon was on the other side of the room gagging at the site of the vomit on the floor.

“Radiation exposure…” she groaned, the words causing everyone in the room to react with a panicked expression. “I was out in no-man’s-land…” The rest of her statement was lost as she passed out, Tibbs just barely catching her before she face-planted into the puddle of sick.

“She needs a doctor!” Tibbs said, worry plain on his face.

“I can take her to a hospital through a shortcut?” Sans offered.

“No, wait!” The interruption came from Jen, who had crossed the room, and was now rummaging around in one of the desks. “If we take her to a hospital we are going to have to explain what happened.” She said reasonably. “Not only do we have no idea what exactly has happened, but if the university finds out it was due to a malfunction with the machine, they are going to shut the whole project down, and we’ll never get a chance to fix what’s happened to Dr. Cooper.”

She stood up from the desk holding the labs Geiger counter, and looked over at Sans. “I think we’re all starting to guess the same thing here, that this is not _our_ Dr. Cooper.” She said gravely. “The machine clearly didn’t operate in the way the simulations projected. And if we have any hope of trying to reverse the error, we can’t lose control of this project.”

Sans couldn’t deny the truth of her words, but little worms of doubt were beginning to wriggle around in his mind. The only thing that had gotten him motivated enough to start working on the project after so many years of apathy, caused by all the resets, memories of which being nothing but distant nightmares by now, was Lucy showing up, and forcibly pushing him from his comfortable cocoon of lethargy. He didn’t know if he could figure out exactly what had gone wrong. Not only that, but this woman, who looked so much like the Lucy he knew, was clearly going to need some serious medical attention.

He glanced up to see three sets of eyes looking at him expectantly. Sans realized that without Dr. Cooper, the three were looking to him to make the decision, something he never, _EVER_ wanted to be in a position to do, what he wouldn’t give for a nice long nap right about now. He seriously considered turning around, and taking a shortcut through the lab exit directly to his bed, but an image of Lucy smiling popped unbidden to his mind. He knew he was beginning to enjoy being around her more lately, but he never considered how it would make him feel if she were gone. Sweat beading on his skull, Sans let out a heavy breath, and nodded at Jen. “Let me just make a couple of calls.”

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

_In the jungle, welcome to the jungle_

_Watch it bring you to your knees_

_I'm gonna watch you plead_

“Welcome to the Jungle”, Guns N' Roses

 

**_There…_ **

Sans had teleported them away from the forest so quickly Lucy barely had time to realize what had happened. One moment she was freezing in the darkness in the clutches of an intimidating version of a close friend, the next she was squinting in the garish neon lights of a city, her ears being assaulted with a cacophony of noise. It didn’t take her long to realize she once again had control of her body though, and with a grunt pulled her arm away from the red, yellow, and black clad monster who had been gripping her upper arm tightly.

The action made her stumble back slightly, as she didn’t expect her stunt to break his grip so quickly, and the movement caused passersby to stop and stare. It was then Lucy realized that the crowd around them was made up almost entirely of monsters. And the looks they were shooting her way were unfriendly to say the least. The feeling of hostility made Lucy pause long enough to give Sans a chance to grab her by the arm again, and pull her forward the half step she had won from him with her maneuver. A hard backhand across the face, and a tight yank on her long plaited hair brought her attention away from the crowd of monsters, and back to her captor.

“Heh, wild caught humans, am I right?” Sans grumbled to the crowd in general, clearly not expecting a response from anyone in particular, as he quickly turned to leave, dragging Lucy behind with him through the pedestrian monsters that were beginning to lose interest and continue on their ways. Lucy yelped as she felt the tug on her scalp, and stumbled along after him.

“I like this,” Sans said with a smirk, giving her braid another tug in reference, “makes a nice leash.”

Lucy scowled and suppressed a shudder at his words, working hard to keep up with him so as not to let her already abused scalp suffer more damage from being dragged along as she was.

“Just a general warning sweet cheeks, but monsters around here don’t like humans very much. Most monsters wouldn’t think twice about dusting another monster for as little as getting bumped into, so I can guarantee that if you try anything around here, there won’t be any shortage of creeps more than pleased about slicing up a pretty little thing like you. So maybe try to stick close yeah?”

  Lucy tried to keep her neutral expression strong, act like the threat didn’t bother her, but she couldn’t help but let her eyes dart around the various monsters walking to and fro on the sidewalk around them. Indeed many of them looked hardened, and worn, expressions of distrust, and wariness plain on their faces. She caught monsters grimace at each other as they passed by, and more than a few muttered threats, hisses, and threw sideways glares. Sans caught her worried glances, cracking the mask of unconcern she tried so hard to keep, and snickered. Convinced that his threat was taken to heart, he released her hair, and took a tight grasp once again on her upper arm, and continued to lead her through the city.

Lucy had been living in a world where monsters were a regular sight for some time now. If there was one impression that the many monsters of the underground seemed to leave on her during that time, it was that they were generally very open, generous beings. Even through all the hostility, and prejudice that they faced from mankind when first emerging from the underground, (and occasionally still had to weather to this day) they never seemed to respond in kind, almost always showing compassion and friendliness in return. A standard that seemed to be set forth by their intimidating in stature, but gentle in nature king Asgore, and the sweet, innocent child ambassador Frisk. However, this was clearly not the case here, in whatever nightmare world Lucy had fallen into.

Pulling her attention away from the frightening beings that surrounded them, Lucy’s eyes traveled up to the sky, or what she could see of it around the tall buildings, and gaudy neon signs. To her shock, the sky over the city had a transparent purple hue. Sans glanced over at her, and followed her stare to see what had captured her attention.

“What, never seen a monster city magic barrier?” He grunted. “It’s what keeps the air clean of radiation here.”

Lucy’s attention snapped back to the skeleton monster at the word ‘radiation’, just as he pulled them off the sidewalk, and through the wide double doors of a tall, brightly lit building, and into the lobby of what looked like an upscale condominium complex.

“Radiation? What do you mean radiation? Radiation from what?” She asked in quick-fire haste, all pretense of hiding her nerves forgotten.

“The makes-you-sick-and-turns-you-to-dust kinda radiation obviously” Sans answered inattentively as he seemed to spot something he was looking for against a far wall, and pulled her along with him to what he was seeking. “Speakin’ of which, we should probably grab a couple of these.”

They had stopped in front of a large, shiny vending machine. Sans shuffled through his pocket with the hand not gripping Lucy’s arm, and produced some money to shove into a slot. Grabbing the two small, wrapped candy bars that dropped into a compartment below, he thrust one into her hand, while unwrapping his and tossing it into his mouth whole. Lucy looked down at the wrapper of hers, stumbling slightly as he continued marching on, dragging her like luggage. The label on the candy’s packaging read ‘Nu-Kure Bar’, under that was writing proclaiming the product to be the one and only “Nuclear Fallout Radiation Exposure Cure”.

“Nuclear fallout?” Lucy asked in a hushed tone, her eyes snapping up to Sans.

“Guess you’re really not in Kansas anymore huh?” He responded with a dark grin, white pin-prick pupils focusing intently on Lucy as they stepped onto an elevator. “Let’s just say you humans really didn’t respond well to monster-kind’s attempts at takin’ over the Aboveground. Best I can figure, your world leaders thought that if they were gonna be wiped out anyways, might as well try to take the monsters down with them.”

Lucy digested this piece of information quietly as Sans selected a floor, and the elevator began ascending with a lurch that did not help settle her already uneasy stomach. The half-formed theory for where she had ended up began to rise to the surface of her mind. Multiple Universe theory was not a branch of science she had spent much time researching, or even put much stock into before today. But the more she began to realize this was not a nightmare, nor a dystopian future of her own timeline, the more she was starting to accept the fact that the machine had sent her through dimensions, rather than through time. If this were the case, how could she even hope to reverse her predicament? She had no idea how the bridge could have even opened into another dimension, and thus had no idea how to recreate the event to send herself back. Nor had she any hope that Sans and the three interns back in her home dimension would know what had happened to her, and be able to pull her from this nightmarish shade of a world she found herself in.

As Lucy’s mind raced, she willed her trembling hands to be steady as she unwrapped the Nu-Kure bar, her vision blurring slightly with unshed tears. She took a bite of the sweet candy, and struggled to swallow it past the lump forming in her throat. She realized that she was beginning to panic, and that she needed to calm down if she had any hope of thinking up some sort of plan to get out of this predicament, but at the moment she felt as if she were outside of her own body looking in. Like she was watching herself on a television screen and was unable to control her thoughts and emotions.

Lucy sensed a heavy stare from Sans beside her before long. Regaining some small mastery over herself again, she shot a sideways glance at the monster, hoping he hadn’t noticed the tell-tale signs of her beginning to crack. With a shudder she realized that he was looking squarely at her, an intense, indecipherable expression on his face. His proximity was suffocating, though realistically Lucy knew he hadn’t moved closer to her since they had entered the elevator, but the shift of his full attention on her made the small space between them insufferable.

Suddenly, with a speed she had not been expecting, Sans had her thrown into the elevator wall behind her. She let out a gasp as one of his fists slammed into the wall beside her face with a loud bang, causing her to flinch. She would have crumpled to the floor from the shock if it were not for the sudden, uncomfortable realization that his body was holding her up, pinned against the wall. Had Lucy not been having a minor panic attack already at that time she might have starting screaming and throwing her fists, but in her mild state of shock, all she could do was gulp as the evil shade of the Sans she knew grabbed her hand holding the candy bar in a vise-like grip, and brought it to her mouth.

“I said eat the fuckin’ candy bar.” He rumbled out in a low growl that she could feel through her ribs and into her heart where his chest was pressed against hers.

Opening her mouth she tremulously took another bite, trying to chew and gulp down the candy as quickly as she could without choking. It was hard to swallow however as she realized with a tense lurch in her stomach that she could feel his breath hot on her neck where it connected to her shoulder. Unbidden the feeling caused heat to pool between her thighs, some part of her mind treacherously recognizing him somehow as the Sans she knew, and reacting to his presence. Finally, as she finished off the last of the bar, he let her hand drop, the empty wrapper fluttering to the ground unheeded. She refused to meet his stare, even as he prolonged the unwelcome (but oh-so-welcome had he been her Sans that traitorous part of her mind whispered) contact.

At last he mercifully backed away. She wobbled slightly, but managed to hold her own weight again on shaking knees. Finally mastering her panic, Lucy shot a look of hybrid terror and fury at the skeleton monster, but to her surprise, he only started to laugh.

“Relax doll face, I’m just messin’ with ya,” he chuckled. “But you’re awful cute when you’re scared shitless.” He added with a dark grin.

Lucy’s eyes narrowed and her scowl deepened even as a spear of icy fear stabbed through her gut. However, her steely expression did little to unnerve the monster as much as he had unnerved her.

 “You think you’re scared now?” he asked, grinning at her hardened features, and seeing through them with far more ease then Lucy cared for, “wait until you meet the boss.”

**Author's Note:**

> So I deliberated long and hard about publishing this story at all, let alone this soon. I'm fairly new to the fandom, having just played the game about a month ago, and I feel like I'd just started scratching the surface of all the amazing AU's there are out there, when this story idea popped into my brain.
> 
> I write pretty slow, and I'd been working on this chapter, and the story outline for the last few weeks, and hadn't planned on putting this online until I at least had the next chapter ready, but on a whim tonight I thought, fuck it! And decided to release it into the wild.
> 
> I'm sorry for any grammatical errors, I don't have a beta reader, and it doesn't matter how many times I proofread my own works, shit always seems to slip through.  
> This is also the first story that I've published to this site, so I'm not quite sure if I'm doing this right...
> 
> Let me know if you like it, or hell, even if you hate it (I'm a big girl, I can take it). I'd especially love criticism though, so if there are any mistakes or improvements that can be made, please don't be shy, let me know! <3


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